Moderator

A long time had passed. Ice-cold Claws and noobiess put up a fairly intense battle at first, but they had worn out much more quickly than Sprite Poll 3 had. Sprite Poll 3 was now taunting. "What? Is that all you've got? I told you, when I said I intended for the vote to continue for all eternity, I meant it. It's over for you, though. Your reliance on decisions has been your downfall, as I can now decide to end your existence."

"It's no use," noobiess lamented. "We just can't win."

"I won't let this happen!" Ice-cold Claws replied, determined to see this through. He then summoned HUGE icy claws from his hands and rushed toward Sprite Poll 3 for a final strike. However, his attack had no effect.

"If you want to go first, that's fine with me." Sprite Poll 3 gathered the power of all the votes that he had absorbed and fired it at Ice-cold Claws. The blast sent him flying lifelessly over the landscape to land next to noobiess.

"I'm... sorry... noobiess..." Ice-cold Claws struggled. "I was not strong enough. There is something you need to know, though. When we gained our sprite powers, I knew. I knew you'd be the one to stop this menace once and for all. You just don't know it yet. Your sprite has the power to beat this guy. I saw it!

"You can't let this guy win. We need to be able to make decisions. We need to be able to move on with our lives, instead of being trapped in an endless state of paralysis. No one will agree on everything, but that is worth the freedom of living out our ambitions. You just have to... realize your power... and unleash..." Ice-cold Claws then dissolved into a bunch of numbers in a hill shape on the ground.

"So, how do you like my Central Limit Attack? Soon, everything will become a Gaussian distribution. It's only a matter of time, noobiess. Just embrace your destiny!" Sprite Poll 3 then turned his terrible powers on everyone else. Theorymon, bugmaniacbob, tennisace, Wyverii, Texas Cloverleaf, Birkal, Mos-Quitoxe, the other sprite submitters... all of them became numbers. All were absorbed into Sprite Poll 3's being, making him ever stronger. However, noobiess's fury rose to match Sprite Poll 3's strength.

"I... won't... let you... GET AWAY WITH THIS!"

Everything was shaking. Glitchy graphical effects surrounded noobiess. Sprite Poll 3 was in shock at what was happening. He tried to use his Central Limit Attack on noobiess, but the latter brushed it aside. Where the attack ended up, more hills of numbers exploded into existence.

The phantom polls attacked noobiess all at once. However, for all of their combined efforts, noobiess was completely unfazed. noobiess followed with a brutal assault of his own. Sprite Poll 3 barely had time to gasp in amazement when the last phantom poll was felled.

Sprite Poll 3 laughed nervously. "So, you think the amount of votes you've gotten makes you strong enough to defeat me? Well, try these on for size!" He launched every manner of attack at noobiess, including Chebyshev's Ray and the Rising Sun, but none of them dealt any visible damage. Sprite Poll 3 decided to come at noobiess head-on with a Sigma-Algebra, but noobiess's counterattack was too powerful, going clean through Sprite Poll 3.

Sprite Poll 3 staggered back. "Grr... Why, you... I'll destroy you and everything on this world! Then I can remold it in my image!" He flew up into the sky and began charging up his attack. "Let's see how you like my Monte Carlo Attack! It can even destroy beings that can't be destroyed with analytical techniques! If you dodge, the whole world will feel its wrath! Any last words?"

noobiess calmly replied, "Actually, one phrase does come to mind." He began his counterattack...

---

"Necturine! Sketch that one! Hurry! YEAH! Our friends are going to be so shocked when they see our daughter using this move. It's gonna be awesome."

The party guests are beginning to arrive. All of the users are invited. Ice-cold Claws is sure to brag about his performance and line delivery in the TV show that must not be named, while tennisace's and bugmaniacbob's lines may become the source of much amusement as well. As for the ATL, well, I'm relieved that this is finally over, and grateful for the experience. I wasn't sure of what was going to happen because of the many varied opinions on how many pre-evos Necturna should have, and I even said that Necturna's flavour was a bit of a trainwreck. I think that we have done some good work on this pre-evo project, though. Maybe we'll even see it in action if CAP LC ever comes into existence.

This project comes and goes at a time when I'm not really sure on what my own future will bring, both inside and outside of Smogon. It was largely for this reason I was so hesitant to take the mantle when Rising_Dusk offered it to me. Maybe my spontaneous story OPs were a way to escape from the turmoil I was experiencing irl. There were many times when I wished I was more involved in the threads themselves than I ended up being able to be. At any rate, I hope I have done a good enough job as the guy who made all these threads and tried to guide the discussion, and I hope that the project has been a source of much entertainment, whether it be from my OPs or from the ins and outs of the discussions, or from the actual polls. The ones at the end got really close, especially the sprite polls!

The height and weight are some of the last things that need to be decided (icons would be great, too, since Necturna has them). I would like to base the height on Mos-Quitoxe's comic, where Necturine's "body" is roughly as large as Ursaring's head. Ursaring is 1.8 m tall, so 0.1-0.5 m would be a good range for Necturine. 0.2 m is 1/9 of Ursaring's height, which is too small, while 0.3 m is 1/6 of Ursaring's height, which is too large. However, I note that the stem contributes significantly to Necturine's height. Thus, Necturine's (tentative) height is 0.3 m (1' 00"). Weight I'm not as certain about, but I think 1.8 kg (4 lbs, same as Sunkern) is a good value. If there is significant disagreement with these figures, then they could be reconsidered.

And since my previous outburst has made this post terribly long already, here is the final product for Necturna's pre-evo!

Hide(Move your mouse to the hide area to reveal the content)Show HideHide Hide

Ice-cold Claws is sure to brag about his performance and line delivery in the TV show that must not be named

Click to expand...

Maybe, but this fella will always be my bragging material.
In all seriousness though, I enjoyed your all pre-thread stories. Great job!

And a great job to everyone else.
I think Necturine here allowed many underappreciated artists to shine:
the epic Mos_Quitoxe finally had a winning art design, and
Noobiess (whose sprite thread I've been admiring) became a champ as well.
So yes, thank god for Necturine.

See you guys in CAP3! (in all the art-related sections of course. I'm not a competitive scheming-whatever guy)

Moderator

Uh, crap, I didn't even think about the Pokédex colour D: I also assure Lady Salamence that I was not drunk in writing all that.

Birkal: The thread came in so late that I felt kind of badly about posting the "April Fools'" version in the first place, and I didn't think it would be appropriate at that point to make ANOTHER final product thread just to change Joltik to Necturine. I mean, I guess it might have been another excuse to milk "the story" a bit further but other than that...

Oh, for real this time. Great work on Necturine~, everyone. Necturine~ is such a cute Pokemon, while still remaining creepy as well. I think Necturine~ is a really appropriate prevo to Necturna, and I hope more prevos like Necturine~ can come about in the future.

btw, the question about the ~ was meant seriously. The ~ wasn't actually included on the name during the polls, just in the original post, and has suddenly reappeared as if people voted for it. They didn't. And why would they? What's it there for?

Moderator

I'm surprised at the serious reaction to the tilde. After all the zany OPs, people get weirded out by a playful nod to the original submission post. I guess it's what happens when final products don't go up on site... It's hard to tell what's official and what isn't. i.e. It's not "official", and I doubt the tilde would be treated as such even if I insisted on it for whatever reason. Is it even possible to put a tilde in a Pokémon's name?

Speaking of the OPs... it's weird how they even happened to begin with. Most of the OPs I'd done previously, as well as some of the ones that would happen afterward, had a sort of overly excited zaniness to them. However, I really had nothing for the art poll OPs. There was a point where it seemed like I was just trying to outdo reachzero's art poll OPs instead of actually injecting my personality into it. However, a random DBZ reference I posted, combined with the disqualification of one of the entries, gave me an out... and we all know the rest.

The nature of the art and sprite polls made it difficult to figure out how much "material" I'd be able to work with. Mos-Quitoxe's quick and decisive victory in the art polls shortened everything considerably; with the sprite polls, although four entrants for the second poll were plausible, ultimately three advanced, killing the possible Sprite Poll 4. All of this led to "Cell" being rushed and dying a lot like Bojack.

As a final aside, I'm going to reveal one idea I decided was way too much: someone professing his love for Quanyails in the sprite poll 3 scenario. I thought maybe one of the overly dramatic characters like tennisace or bugmaniacbob, or one of the finalists, would fit this to make a little subplot. I ultimately felt it would be crossing a line, though. It's the kind of thing that could become memetic outside of this little project. Then again, I have to wonder if I hadn't already crossed a line in making these OPs and making people say and do the weirdest things...

...Anyway, yeah, the tilde is not something to get all serious about. I'll probably edit it out, whatever.

<+capefeather> I was originally just trying to come up with an excuse for extending the deadlines
<+capefeather> but it turned into... something else...
<+capefeather> http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3463041
<EspyOwner> Oh my God
<EspyOwner> That's more entertaining than it should have been, cape.

<bugmaniacbob> and there I was thinking you would do a standard "sounds can be heard coming from the egg" gag line
<+capefeather> lol
<bugmaniacbob> well, I'm glad I provided a source of merriment, at least

<Destiny_Warrior> capefeather
<Destiny_Warrior> I am glad you wrote a story for art polls

Art Poll 2 / name submissions

<@Birkal> lol cape
<@Birkal> you are a riot <3
<@Birkal> love the writings

<@Birkal> I really do need to start saying radical
<@Birkal> more often

<+Mos_Quitoxe> oh my
<+Mos_Quitoxe> I'm gonna have to live up to this narrative now and submit my own sprite :V
<@Birkal> yeah like dang
<@Birkal> I wanna submit a sprite
<@Birkal> just to continue the story

<paintseagull> sorry to ruin your nice OP's capefeather but [an incident with the art polls] really didn't make any sense

<%SgtWoodsy> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EKTw50Uf8M
<%SgtWoodsy> here's a video of mos going super saiyan
<%SgtWoodsy> all i have to say is fucking tribes ascend

<Destiny_Warrior> I like stories
<Destiny_Warrior> especially the kind you write
<@capefeather> how do you not know that I "submitted" Facegrabber
<Destiny_Warrior> I haven't seen
<Destiny_Warrior> the latest2 threads yet
<Destiny_Warrior> I'm lookinag at them now
<&Birkazzz> You should read them
<&Birkazzz> It's RADICAL, just amazing.
<Destiny_Warrior> looking at em now
<Destiny_Warrior> lol yeah
<Destiny_Warrior> loved that one about mos
<&Birkazzz> I was worried that I would be sad from the lack of ducks :<
<&Birkazzz> but these stories have been great, haha

Sprite Poll 1 (i.e. I have taken crazy to yet another level)

<&Birkal> hahaha cape
<&Birkal> I am loling at this
<&Birkal> great work

<@capefeather> what is a supermod's most intense infraction anyway
<+jas61292> lol cape. I like the story btw

Sprite Poll 2 (i.e. I have taken constipation to yet another level)

<&Birkal> hahaha capefeather
<&Birkal> The writing looked like Theorymon's:
<&Birkal> and he wrote down all the rules
<&Birkal> I lol'd

<Wyverii> Wait a second, I never actually read the op.
<Wyverii> "Constipation"...

<Wyverii> Bmb seems to be the buttmonkey in your little story.
<@capefeather> I only mentioned him twice though
<Wyverii> Well you gotta admit, he was killed once, and now he's... er.
<Wyverii> Trying to go super saiyan.

Sprite Poll 3 (i.e. I have taken indecision to yet another level)

<+jas61292> cape! That OP! That was wonderful.

Final Product / General reviews

<&Birkal> hahaha
<&Birkal> excellent work, cape

<&Deck_Knight> Well, at least someone was in the April 1st spirit today
<LadySalamence> Yeah haha
<&Deck_Knight> TBH I didn't expect the ending since I thought. the zanyness in the OPs was way overboard for the last bunch of polls, but whatever man

<+jas61292> cape... that thread just made my day
<%SgtWoodsy> it's april 2nd
<%SgtWoodsy> stop making april fool's jokes on not april fool's day
<+jas61292> not here
<%SgtWoodsy> don't care

<Wyverii> Oh god
<Wyverii> I just saw the recent thread

<Wyverii> Also has vader's avatar gotten -even bigger-?
<+jas61292> I was wondering the same thing
<@capefeather> my theory is, supermod avatars get bigger and bigger as time passes
<@capefeather> soon they'll be all you see

<Destiny_Warrior> why does necturine's final product
<Destiny_Warrior> have joltik pictures?
<&Deck_Knight> capefeather made a funny.
<LadySalamence> april fools
<&Deck_Knight> It also has Joltik's Movepool lol
<Destiny_Warrior> yeah
<Destiny_Warrior> I noticed
<&Deck_Knight> He even rememberd Joltik doesn't learn Thunder!
<elevator_music> central limit attack
<elevator_music> x.x
<@capefeather> lol
<@capefeather> I went so overboard lol
<+jas61292> And it is awesome
<elevator_music> lol monte carlo
<@capefeather> I should have mentioned Markov Chains

<&Deck_Knight> I think we can keep the last part of the process open, and shift it along as we get to the next part (So we'll Have Part 5 Discussion move out when Part 7 Discussion moves in)
<&Deck_Knight> Err, rather, in the main forum, not "open"
<&Deck_Knight> Just as long as we don't have capefeatheresque meandering story OPs >_>
<+jas61292> what's wrong with those?
<&NotBirkal> nothing
<&NotBirkal> absolutely nothing
<@capefeather> lol
<@capefeather> to be fair, I doubt I would have tried that as a TL
<Destiny_Warrior> those stories are
<Destiny_Warrior> BRILLIANT
<@capefeather> and hey, you get to remember past poll threads and how CAP used to work over the years
<@capefeather> though that part in particular sounded a lot better in my head

<&Birkal> oh wow capefeather
<&Birkal> way to edit your post
<&Birkal> lol
<&Birkal> now I look like a loser, haha

<&Deck_Knight> I disliked that post because all power levels were over 9000
<+jas61292> lol Deck
<+Mos_Quitoxe> but over 9000 is perfect ham level!
<+jas61292> Though, having everyone over 9000 might be a bit of an exaggeration
<&Deck_Knight> In fairness, at least you didn't get up to Obama deficit numbers.
<+jas61292> lol
<+DHR> xD
<@capefeather> "Obama deficit numbers"
<@capefeather> you have to consider which saga I was ripping off though